Lifescapes Gallery

Being mugged is every traveller’s nightmare. Being mugged and then consumed as the main course in a mugger’s banquet, is the stuff that makes it to the horror movie hall of fame. But being killed and converted into a Smoothie to be slurped at leisure, takes the (dis)honours and is certainly not something you’d like Read more >>

Robber Fly, Coorg | Posted in Coorg, Insects | 8 Comments »

History is replete with tales of legendary heroes going into exile, and returning after conquering the odds, to reclaim their rightful place. In the Hindu epic, The Ramayana, the young Prince Rama had to undergo a fourteen year exile before he was considered ready to claim his throne. While Rama spent his years in the Read more >>

Cicada, Kabini | Posted in Insects, Kabini | 13 Comments »

It’s said that if you wish to attain any degree of proficiency in a field, you should begin early. Nobody follows this dictum better than the subject of this issue, whose career as a mimicry artist begins from early childhood. What looks to be a bird’s dropping on a leaf, is often a Common Mormon Read more >>

Common Mormon Caterpillar, Coorg | Posted in Coorg, Insects | 10 Comments »

Did this miniature model of entomological royalty get its name because it’s the king of animals in its weight group? Or does the Antlion’s name owe more to its voracious predation of ants? The jury has been out for a while now, and while the debate doesn’t seem to suggest an early resolution, the rule Read more >>

Antlion, Coorg | Posted in Coorg, Insects | 9 Comments »

The Queen is dead; long live the Queen! This could well be the leitmotif of a parallel universe that exists in the microscopic underworld of Coorg. Shades of regicide can be seen in the image above, where a worker ant is attempting to murder the Queen just as she’s emerged after a successful mating. Welcome Read more >>

Jumping Ants, Coorg | Posted in Coorg, Insects | 13 Comments »

The pastoral society of Kabini is the stage where an intrepid breed of farmers herds their cattle right under the noses of large predators who are none the wiser for the event. Perhaps it helps that the ‘cattle’, in this Lilliputian saga, are no larger than a grain of rice, and their minders aren’t much Read more >>

Honey ant and aphids, Kabini | Posted in Insects, Kabini | 44 Comments »

Forget Cannes, Ibiza, Jamaica, Rio and other playgrounds of the sun worshipping jet set. Some of the world’s most beautiful bodies are to be found sunbathing in the hills and vales of Coorg. While the strips in the south of France and the Caribbean have their acolytes, discerning members of the animal bourgeois find their Read more >>

Baronet Butterfly, Coorg | Posted in Coorg, Insects | 19 Comments »

Long, long ago, in the days before PCs and video games, when TVs were tourist attractions at the homes of the connected, children in South India prospected for precious metals in their backyards. When you did strike gold, or any other likely gem, you tucked away the precious catch in miniature safe deposit lockers, which Read more >>

Jewel Bug, Coorg | Posted in Coorg, Insects | 27 Comments »

A Damsel is not always a lady. For, even the males of this species are called Damselflies, though they don’t seem to mind too much (proof that metrosexuals have been around much longer than our fashionistas would have us believe). The females too are definitely not products of those Swiss finishing schools that insist on Read more >>

Damselfly, Coorg | Posted in Insects | 24 Comments »

All work and no play makes Jill a good bee. And a ‘live’ bee. For it’s not unknown for the hive bosses, to knock off Worker Bees suspected to be sleeping on the job. No sir… it just won’t do. There’s a lot of work to be done. Hives to be built, honey to be Read more >>

Worker Bee, Coorg | Posted in Coorg, Insects | 19 Comments »